$568 To Change A US Airways Flight? Complain And Get Transferred To Little Caesar's Pizza

Kyle was annoyed that when he had to change his US Airways tickets, he not only was charged a ticket change fee, he also didn’t get any refund, even though the new tickets were cheaper than his old ones. When he complained and asked for a supervisor, he found himself transferred instead to a purveyor of doughy circular objects, covered in cheese, and ruled over by a diminutive dictator.

Kyle writes:

I booked a business trip for my partner and I to Charleston, SC on a US Airways flight. The total booking was $743.60 to get us there and back. An emergency occurred with the person we had a meeting with, so it had to be pushed to the following week. Here comes the fee monster.

$150 per ticket fee (40% of the cost!) to move our flight back by three days. But that’s not even the worst part: The flights we rebooked were actually cheaper than our original flights by a total of $268. However, US Airways would not apply the difference to the flight change fee, they wouldn’t give me a travel voucher for the remainder, and of course they wouldn’t refund the money outright. So our total for rebooking was $300 in fees and $268 in money that just ‘disappeared’. $568.00 to rebook a flight.

I thought that surely if I could get in touch with a human being that they would see how ridiculous it was that $268 could just be absorbed. I called up the customer relations department, waited on hold for 34 minutes, asked for a supervisor, and was promptly transferred to Little Caesars Pizza.

That is pretty wack. According to US Airways policy, they are entitled to charge you the $150 change fee, but according to their “Lower Fare Guarantee” posted on their website they’re supposed to give you a voucher for the fare difference. I would call back and escalate, and if that doesn’t work, try calling up their corporate office.